A simple study tool to learn new words and build your vocabulary efficiently

Monday, 5 October 2015

Language Learning Tips and Tricks: Tip 4

Choose some non-fiction read including newspapers

Reading them will make sure your language vocabulary is varied as you won't find, for example, a lot of popular science terms in fiction books. Well, not in that concentration anyway.

Tricks

You might want to choose articles and/or books which will educate you for your particular needs, be it your career or hobby.

Career

Once upon a time education path was simple - school, university and happy ever after. Today you have to be your own sat nav to get the job you want to have as when you were at uni this kind of job might not have even existed!

And education is becoming more and more accessible via MOOCs. And if, for example, you decide that to get to your next destination you need some accounting knowledge then you stop over at Coursera and pack your bag with this intangible asset before continuing your journey.

Even if you prefer a more clear and straight way in your career and love your current job, you will still need to keep upgrading your knowledge before you realise that you are way behind your more nimble and agile colleagues. For example, if you are in marketing may be it's time to throw in some new digital marketing tricks to shake things up?

But all work and no play...

Hobby

If you are like me and are crazy about cooking then you can discover new recipes in the language you are learning. With learning English, BBC good food is a fab resource which we used while putting together our ready vocBlocks "5 A Day".

And if you love cooking and are learning Italian...Good luck with that diet of yours! By the way to boost your Italian or any other language vocabulary just copy the existing vocBlocks with fruit and veg names, add Italian or any other language translation from the built in dictionaries, record sound if you need it and you are good to go.

News

For Top Gear fans out there...Keep an eye on the news not to miss the next episode! It is coming back! But you probably know already if you read papers. So, why not reading them in the language you are learning? It’s so easy with news websites (e.g. BBC, CNN) ) and newspapers available online. Obviously domestic news will not be fully covered but you can always split your news reading time between two languages and read on international affairs in the language you are learning.

One more bonus from this kind of read is that you will always have what to talk about with your foreign friend(s). Or you might just discuss a movie you have recently seen. But this will be the topic of our next tip. Don’t miss it!

In the meantime feel free to share your experience of reading non-fiction in the comments below.